this effort has been a true effort between the city, the school district, and so many of our partners in the community, and this launch today is really about involving our community, our larger community, in what it is that we're trying to do. and so we want to just thank all of our community partners who are here, urban services, maria sue from the department of children, youth, and families. the s.f. police department, who has been really instrumental in makingsure that our truancy process goes well, and captain lazar is here from the police department. want to thank him for all of his efforts and supporting what we're doing. and i have from the school district superintendent garcia and our mayor, who have been partnering on so many different efforts. but today is about bringing our communities into the fold. when we see students out on the street, we're not going to walk by them any longer and just allow them to stay on the street

and miss hours of school and miss opportunities, to be the kind of citizens that we want them to be. and so this is really about showing the support for our students and that our community is here to be with them. and i also wanted to acknowledge regina, who has been really instrumental in connecting us with our merchant associations, and then we also have erica, who is here, who is our representative of the merchant associations that we're going to be walking and meeting with this afternoon. i did get maria. so without further ado -- there are so many people here -- i think part of the efforts that we wanted to really do too -- and lourdes, this is for you and your compadres around the neighborhood, so bring the staff to you, so you know who's part of this. we have our star from tarp, from

sfpd, people that actually work directly with our families who are in crisis. so this is an opportunity for you to see who the people are that are touching our students when you let us know that they need to be touched. so this is really an opportunity for all of our merchants to see what we're putting in behind this effort. so without further ado, i want to welcome our superintendent of schools. our first week of school went off without a hitch, thank goodness. and the efforts that he's been doing around truancy and the support he's been giving and receiving to the city to make sure our students stay in school. superintendent carlos garcia. [applause] >> good morning. for me, it's like a dream come true. i have to tell you. i've been a superintendent in three other places before i came here, and finally my dream has come true. we have a mayor who is actually walk tk talk, stepping up and saying what we need to do is if this isn't just a school

district problem. this isn't just a parent problem. this is really a community, a city, county problem. it's everybody's problem. anybody who thinks it isn't their problem, boy, they really have big problems, because the reality is the impact of truancy affects every single one of us in this great city and state. look at the kids who are incorrespondent rated, the people who are prisoners in our state penal system. it's all people who are truants. and 70% of our prisoners aren't literate. they can't read. so you can't learn to read unless you're at school and you're actively engaged in school. so finally, we have a city, we have, you know, departments. we have a mayor, we have a superintendent. we have everybody, teachers, now merchants, because we had to cast a bigger net. the net keeps getting -- every time we get together, somebody comes up with a more brilliant idea of saying, well, ok, you've gotten the parents involved now. you haven't had the d.a.

involved. you have all these different people involved. who's missing? and the one that was obvious to us is where do kids hang out if they're not in school? some of them stay at home, but we also know that a lot of the kids roam the streets and they go around commercial areas. so this now goes to the next level of saying, ok, now what are we going to do? this is something that needs to happen. if we want to turn this around, and i think we can, the results are in from last year, where it's a 30% increase on improving our attendance in our school district. i think we can get it to the point where it will be a model for the entire country. this doesn't happen by itself. it's been great to partner. this is the start of my fourth year, and we've had such a great partnership with the mayor. i'm stealing the show, but it really is my honor to scombruse i think a world class mayor here in san francisco gavin newsom.

[applause] >> i don't know what more i can possibly say, because i appreciate the spirit that carlos offered all of us, and that is we're all in this together. that there's no school district, truancy problem, there's not a city truancy problem, there's not a truancy problem as it relates to the issues at home and how they manifest in terms of attendance that we have in our community, not just in san francisco, the communities large and small across the state and across this nation, a major problem with truancy and dropouts. as carlos says, it manifests in the most acute ways. if you're fiscally conservative and care less about social justice and the issue of poverty and race, you should care about this issue as one of your dominant issues. because the costs are extraordinary. the economic costs and terms of

lost wages. the economic cost, as carlos was saying, of incarceration. the economic cost in terms of issues that manifest if someone is not going to school and someone is a dropout are self-evident. i think everyone can recognize those. the second thing is if you actually do believe in social justice and you do believe that we need to reconcile the issue of race and poverty, particularly in the african american and latino community, this needs to be top of your community. the facts are overwhelmingly so, that truancy and dropouts disproportionately affect the african-american and latino community. yet we somehow on both sides of the political aisle are playing the margins on this. and i said this with the superintendent, i guess it was your counselors, carlos, and with the district attorney, i said it feels like every year we're trying to fail more

efficiently. which is just not good enough. last year we made some big progress, and carlos was right to recognize that progress. but it's still, with all due respect, not good enough, because we know we have the capacity to do so much more. we've done a lot of good things. it's not as if we completely neglected this issue. we developed some innovative partnerships and programs that really are a model already in the region for the state and the nation. but it hasn't produced the outcomes that we were hopeful that it would produce. now with this new tarp -- this truancy assessment referral center, which is the first of its type in the nation with the new partnerships with the police department that have actually been embraced by the community, meaning it's not just law enforcement coming in to solve the problem in the community, being wary of that. but the community is now supportive because they understand the sensitivities that law enforcement has to how they can be a partner in this. and how we're now casting that wider net to the business community, to also say we need your help. if there are folks out there in

the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, in the middle of the school year that are just hanging out, they shouldn't be hanging. we need you to get engaged. we need your help. we need you to call the referral center. we need you to call 311. just call 311 and say i need let you know there's some kids out there that seem like good kids, but they could be better kids if they were in class, not necessarily hanging out in front of my birks or in my business, as much as i love them, i know their parents would love it more if they were at school, and encourage them along. we've never had that kind of partnership. so really the spirit of the day is we're going to go out, knock on doors, meet with the merchants, hand out these fliers. these are the fliers. say "keep it real, stay in school." we reference the new truancy school that we opened up, first

of its type in the nation. we have a telephone number that's direct to them. 437-1700, or they can call 311, as always. and talk about the opportunity to be part of this solution. we're going to ask if they put this up in their windows, because we want some of the kids to go uh-oh, i guess they're more serious than ever about staying in school, and it may trigger a sense of responsibility to a lot of the children, or for a lot of the parents that may say, you know, i've had trouble with my kid. but here's a resource center. here's a place i can call to get help with my children, because they're not listening to me. i get this all the time when we knock on doors and meet with parents. i know how tough it is. this is not an indictment of parenting. this is not about pointing fingers. this is about offering our support and help. we recognize the stress of, particularly parents in this economic climate that are doing more than ever and have to do more than ever and they can't do it all. so they need our help as well.

that's really the spirit of the mont, the spirit of the day, and the spirit of a new school year. final point, we're not waiting in the statistics come in. that's probably the most significant thing, as we're not waiting until the middle of the school year. i just just want to thank car loaches it's an incredible temptation. mayors all seem to want to take over their school districts, because no one returns their calls, they don't feel like they're being respected, and everyone on the street is always blaming them for the quality of public education. it's exactly the opposite. to me, that is truly a solution in search of a problem. it would actually create more problems. in this city, we have a model partnership, we have a real leader that cares deeply about not only the school district, cares about his community and the city and recognizes that we are all again in this together and that he has a remarkable

wealth of opportunity to resource capital and the human resources of a 28,000-member city family, and we want to provide those resources. we want to provide that talent to help him do his job more effectively and vice versa. that's why it really is wonderful to see department heads in the past working together, community leaders that haven't been working together, everybody coming, stepping in, and stepping up. so that's the spirit. and i'm very grateful, again, for everyone's leadership and your stewardship. and captain lazar, for wearing a tie, making the mayor look bad. and eric for his great support and the great work he's doing down here. [applause] thank you. >> i always feel like any more a privileged position, because i also work with carlos very closely on the school board and i'm also a parent of a middle schooler and a high schooler.

so if i find them at tark, they will be if a lot of trouble. i'm grateful, though, that there will be folks like all of you that are out there look out for kids like mine that just, you know, thought that today was a beautiful day and wanted to go hang out. so tark will really focus on our chronic and habitual truants, and we'll also be able to redirect students so they don't get into that pattern of not being in school. i want to thank our deputy chief of staff, who was really instrumental in bringing all of this together. [applause] i think the mayor has made it extremely clear in our office that truancy is a priority, so all of us have gotten deeply involved in it. christine worked ve with eric to make sure that the merchants were aware of what we were doing. she came out and spoke to them

personally. she made sure that this is not the only corridor that we'll be hitting. we'll be talking to all of the merchant associations to find out where there are hot spot so we can reach out to the other communities. this will be one of many. i want to extend our gratitude to eric and give him an opportunity to talk about what this actually means for him as a merchant and somebody who organizes the community down this way. i think this will be really helpful, not only for his membership, but for our students. eric? >> thank you. i just want to thank the mayor for being here today. it's always good to see you here. thank you to lourdes for hosting us here this morning. [applause] i do want to say, this is a great opportunity for the merchants to really be involved in this program. i know that walk that christine

and i did together today, some of the merchants already have passed that number on to some of their parents regarding the program. so i think it's going to be a greet partnership. it really takes a community to really deal with this issue. the non-profits, the local businesses, the residents. the merchants are really the eyes and ears of what's happening along the corridor, so they know the families, they know the kids in the neighborhoods. their -- they're comminets and they speak -- clients and they speak to them every day. this is a great opportunity for everyone to come together and tackle this issue. i look forward to working with the mayor and talking to the merchants about the program. so thank you. [applause] >> we have lots of folks -- could actually all of you raise your hand that are involved in the school district, or tark. these are the folks that can answer questions if for you as you're walk along.

so i guess we're doing that. >> we're here to talk truancy. we've got a new partnership. we're trying to encourage kids to stay in school. it's really innovative.

the whole idea is to try to get merchants and encourage them to help out. instead of just hanging out here in the middle of the day. not to get you in the middle of these things, but we've got a number -- [inaudible] -- just help us encourage these kids. >> kids with their upbringing and their background -- [inaudible] -- the football program getting cut. >> some of them are going to be plumbers or a nasa scientist.

we want to encourage them. >> we have academies. so we're putting -- [inaudible] -- we're encouraging everybody to go to college. but some kids are in more technical jobs. >> and that's fine. >> and let that be their choice and not the system. because we need to get them in school. and if they're not in school, they won't be successful at all. >> there's so many things involved with that. i mean, it's all interwoven. [inaudible]

>> i want to thank you all for being here today. i'm the mayor of the city of long beach, california, and i'm also a trustee of the u.s. conference of mayors. mayors from all over this great state have assembled here today to talk about the energy efficiency conservation block grant program. this is a program that started in 2007, and it delivers funds directly to cities to be able to improve their energy efficiency, reduce their carbon footprint, and as important, create new jobs in our community. i will just give you a little background in this really

quickly. program was originally thought of in 2005 when the u.s. conference of mayors launched its climate protection agreement. the agreement is a landmark measure across the country. the u.s. conference of mayors initiated it. it began with 141 mayors. it now has 1044 mayors that have signed on to the climate protection agreement, committing to reduce our climate footprint in each one of our communities. the energy block grant program has been an integral part of that. it gives us the resources to reduce our energy consumption and reduce our carbon footprint, and as i said, it also creates jobs. it has been the result of a lot of people working together, but i do need to thank the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, who worked hard to make this program a reality, and we would not be here today except for her

efforts. on behalf of american cities, i want to thank the speaker for her commitment and diligence. without her help, as i said, this would not be here. i also want to thank president obama and his administration for his support of the program as well as the american recovery and reinvestment act, which is also to fund a number of new initiative projects in a number of our cities. as i said, we are here to work for efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint. in my city, we are investing about $4 million to accelerate private city efforts to reduce energy efficiency in our city structures as well as some of our residential buildings, and we will hear in a moment from the mayors of other cities about what they're doing, but this program is exactly what we need to continue. it is really the only major funding source we have to be able to improve our efficiency and work on climate change

issues, particularly by reducing our carbon footprint. we know that a successful plan for reducing u.s. energy consumption is grounded in local action, and all across this country, it has been demonstrated that local government can take action that is effective and not only reduces our impact on the environment but also puts people back to work. we have been leading the nation in this effort, and i have to tell you, it has been an innovative program that provides the flexibility needed to local governments, and it is the kind of thing that must be carried on in the future. i now would like to introduce a friend of mine and no stranger to all of you, san francisco mayor gavin newsom, who is going to discuss what things have been going on right here in san francisco with this program. mayor newsom: thank you for your stewardship and leadership in bringing us all together.

i thank all the mayors that are here and all of you for taking the time to be here. from our perspective, there are few things more important than this. at the end of the day, what we are really talking about, what we are organizing around is job creation and economic development, reducing the costs not only to government, but reducing the cost to individual businesses, large and small, that want to reduce their energy bill at the same time we advance our environmental principles and advance our collective goals. as many of you know, san francisco has a low global climate action plan. basically all that is is the formal plan that 3043 other mayors -- at 1043 other mayors have signed to robot greenhouse gas unless it -- emissions to 1990 levels by 2012. we have done that through -- in

small part in terms of that reduction. that is energy efficiency. that is the low hanging fruit. that is the easy part of this effort. we have some very ambitious goals nationwide. about half of that, most objective analysis has been done that shows that half of that can be achieved through energy efficiency, so you do not need something in the order of magnitude. just common sense. swapping out that level, taking the old boiler and replacing it, taking that call don t --hat -- that caulk gun in different respects. the think about it is it is so obvious and so easy but we were not achieving our goals until the president and speaker got together and demanded we get some block grants.

we needed some energy development block grants and we needed some autonomy. let me conclude by making a jobs case, and i was making this just a moment ago, on why this matters. we get about $7.7 million through block grants, and we are using that jobs now program, the federal subsidy for direct jobs. 3600 jobs we have created. they are going out and doing energy audits, so we are doing free energy audits, and then we are using all these grants, and then we are providing free resources for folks to actually deal with their boilers and other issues, but here is the big idea, and this is something -- if we put $1 billion -- you do not need to take $1 billion credit. you can just leverage the

percentage that is arguably of to what $1.8 trillion that is just sitting there on the sidelines. just to leverage that money is guaranteed, like we do small business association loans, and start getting people to work today on energy efficiency and create real jobs. here's how we do it -- you get $1 billion just making this case, and you invest into coal, and generate about 870 jobs. sounds great, but you could generate 1000 or 1500 jobs in nuclear energy, but if you want to create more jobs and wealth and opportunity, 1900 jobs in wind or about 3300 jobs, but the big game changer is retrofitting and green building. 7000 jobs for that $1 billion investment. you can just use the money that is sitting in all these financial institutions and

guarantee those loans and get people back to work, doing the energy efficiency work that all these mayors are doing quite successfully, and you do it in rural and suburban areas, not just these big metro areas. get people to work, particularly those in the building and construction trades, those that have the highest rate of unemployment. that is the opportunity, and that is where we are trying to communicate, what we are trying to organize around. this is a win on all fronts, and this is being demonstrated in cities large and small across the country. one of the successes of the stimulus plan is the focus on jobs and this economy. i want to thank everybody who is here and think cathy and her team for their leadership, and think mayor foster for helping bring all of you here to our city and county of sentences go. thank you. >> thank you, mayor newsom.

>> i would like to bring our partner to the podium, the efficiency secretary, cathy joey. >> thank you all for coming. three quick points. on behalf of the president and secretary chu, let me underscore that energy efficiency is central to economic recovery from our perspective. we need to bleed into all the energy potential. americans spend $1.10 trillion on utility bills in their businesses and homes per year. we can become more efficient. that is $200 billion we can save, and we can create jobs while doing it. for every billion that gets invested, 7000 jobs. this program will go on to create more. we love our partnership with the mayors. the mayors are working directly in investing money in cities on

the ground, in buildings, schools, and communities. this program has 2350 grantees from across america that have programs under way this summer, demonstrating that investments in clean energy, green energy, helps economies. watch where the projects are. some of them are wildly innovative. some just make good sense. there are sensible, money saving light bulbs that should have gone in a long time ago. putting new elie de -- led technology into traffic lights, which create safer streets. there are literally thousands of projects under way. take note of what those are. share information. in washington, we are very excited about our partnership. we are very excited about the energy savings that will come